He tortured his neighbors with recordings of neighing horses and the court sentenced him to more than 3 years in prison

A Russian man has been given a 3.5-year suspended sentence for tormenting his neighbors with loud horse neighing and footsteps every night for more than two years.

Yuri Kondratyev, 47, is famous in his hometown of Nizhny Novgorod, after making national news for mentally torturing neighbors in his apartment building for more than two years.

The man, who has lived alone since his wife left him, began harassing his neighbors in 2018. Annoyed by the noises made by one of his neighbors’ children during the day, Yuri began to take revenge on him. the whole building at night. At first he started playing loud rock music for hours on end, and at some point he switched to recordings of neighing and horse footsteps.

After trying to reason with Kondratyev, his neighbors began to file a complaint with the police and other local authorities, and even tried to place him in a mental hospital. At one point, the 47-year-old obtained a certificate from a psychiatrist regarding his impeccable sanity, made copies of them, stuffed them into neighbors’ mailboxes and continued to make horse noises. the night.

Russian media reported that more than 80 complaints were filed against Yuri Kondratyev between April 2018 and December 2020, and that he was even sentenced to several fines, but he never bothered to pay those fines, continuing rather to torture his neighbors with the strange noises. horses.

In December last year, police arrested Kondratyev and criminal proceedings were opened against him under article 117 of the Russian Criminal Code, which refers to victims suffering from mental and physical suffering. He did not admit his guilt during the trial, despite ample evidence against him, in the form of statements from neighbors and fines handed down in recent years.

On July 9, the court imposed a suspended prison sentence on Yuri Kondratyev. This case was the first in Russian history, as it was the first time someone has been charged under Section 117 for disturbing their neighbors. In most cases, they were simply fined.